الفهرس 
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Abstract
Occult bacteremia (OB) means bacteremia without an obvious focus of infection, about 30 % of febrile children, three months to three years old have occult bacteremia, many children with occult bacteremia may appear relatively well. If occult bacteremia is neglected and not treated, it may be localized resulting in meningitis, pneumonia, cellulits or septic arthritis.
Procalcitonin (PCT), which is the key precursor of calcitonin, has been reported to be a specific marker of bacterial infection, its cellular origin and its metabolic pathway is not known. PCT had been demonstrated to be released into the blood 3-6 hours after endotoxin injections into humans, thus the molecule seems to be closely dependent on the cytokine response against micro-organism.
Procalcitonin is a propeptid of calcitonin devoid of hormonal activity, had been measured in various systemic inflammatory response syndromes including sever infections, burns and heat stroke. Plasma concentration of procalcitonin are very low in healthy individuals (< 0.1ug /L) and increase up to 1700 fold in respond to bacterial endotoxins. PCT had been described recently as a marker of infection that can help in the early diagnosis of bacterial neonatal infection and contributes to the differentiation of bacterial versus viral meningitis in children.